Hamburger Cookies

For Father's Day I'm made these adorable Hamburger Cookies. They are so easy to make and look almost like real hamburgers.
What you'll need:
Frosting
Food Coloring (red,green, yellow)
Vanilla Wafer Cookies (I accidently purchased the bite size, but still looks like they turned out ok.)
Keebler Grasshopper Cookies
palm full of Flaked Coconut
Water
Directions:
1.) Mix 4 drops of green food coloring and about 2 drops of water with a palm full of flaked coconut.
2.) Mix 4 drops of yellow food coloring with 5 Tbls of frosting in a small bowl. In a seperate small bowl mix 6 drops of red food coloring for 5 Tbls of frosting.
3.) Then lay out the Vanilla Wafer Cookies with the flat side up. Place Keebler Grasshopper Cookies on top of the wafer cookies. Top with the green coconut (lettuce) and ketchup and mustard.

Free Download of Mr. Food's Decaden Desserts eCookbook

Do you ever get a chance to watch the news and see Mr. Food? He's always giving you recipes and tips for a good meal. Well now you can download his Decadent Desserts eCookbook! This is 32 page print out full of dessert recipes. Be full warned, you may gain some weight. Enjoy!

Cinco De Mayo Dinner

Did you all have a great Cinco De Mayo? I know I had fun. We ended up sitting outside for a bit until our son started to act up and run around the yard. For our dinner I made a little taco bar with rice for a side dish. I would have made more, but I didn't have enough time. Here are the recipes for the following

Flour Tortillas

Ingredients:

4c all-purpose flour

1t salt

2t baking powder

2T lard

1 1/2c water

Directions:

Whisk flour, salt, and baking powder together in a medium size bowl. Then add and mix lard in with your fingers until it looks similar to cornmeal. Add the water and mix until it forms a dough ball.

Place the dough on a floured surface and knead until it is smooth and elastic. Divide dough into 24 pieces and roll into balls.

Preheat a large skillet on medium-high heat. Roll out the balls into 6" round tortillas. Place them into the preheated skillet. Turn them over when it starts to get golden and bubbly. Keep the tortillas in a warmer and serve hot.

Taco Seasoning for the Beef

Ingredients:

1T Chili Powder

1/2t Paprika

1 1/2t ground cumin

1t sea salt

1t black pepper

1/4t dried oregano

1/4t crushed red pepper flakes (optional)

1/4t onion powder

1/4t garlic powder

Directions:

Add mixture to 2lbs cooked ground beef and 1/4c water. Let it cook until the water is almost evaporated and enjoy.

Mexican Rice

Ingredients:

2T butter

1c long-grain rice (5 minute instant)

1/2c chopped onion

2 cloves garlic (grated)

16oz jar of your favorite salsa

3/4c peeled, shredded carrot

1/2c frozen peas, thawed

Directions:

Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion, garlic, and rice; cook for 3-4 minutes until rice is golden in color. Stir in salsa, carrot, peas, and water. Bring to a boil. Reduce to low heat and cook for about 5 minutes.

*If you don't have instant rice; after reducing the heat cook for 25-30 minutes.

Fried Ravioli

My son is really starting to become a picky eater. A year ago for Christmas I purchased the book Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfeld. So far my son has liked almost everything I've made out of the cookbook. One in particular is the Fried Ravioli. Today for his lunch I made him something similar but I didn't add all the ingredients that are required for her recipe because I loaned out the cookbook.

Here's what I had for ingredients:

Wonton Wrappers ($0.99 at Woodmans)

Leftover Hamberger from last night

Homemade Spaghetti Sauce

 

Directions:

• Heat about 2T of Olive Oil in a small saute pan.
• Place a small spoon full of beef into the wonton.
• Wet your finger tips and place on the edges of the wontons. This creates a glue for the wonton to stick to itself.
• Fold the wonton shut.
• Place the filled wontons in the oil. Around 1 minute per side until they're a little brown in color.
• Then Eat & Enjoy!

You could also make crab ragoon this way too. Just replace the beef with cream cheese, onion powder/shallots, and a can of crab meat/imitation crab meat.

Dairy-Free Ham Pizza

For the longest time I thought my son would miss out on having pizza until I went to the local Organic Grocery Store. I found some Vegan Mozzarella cheese! I was so excited and decided he needed to have pizza! Since I was in a hurry I used the following recipe for the crust. It turned out ok because I was in a hurry, but I do have a better recipe that has to be made a day before hand.

Crust ingredients:

~3 Cups All-purpose flour

~1 package active dry yeast

~2T Oil

~1t Salt

~1Cup warm water (110 degrees)

Mix the dry ingredients together. Then mix in the oil and water until it's well combined. Spread out the dough and layer with your favorite toppings.

Pizza Sauce ingredients:

~(2) 8oz cans of tomato sauce

~6oz tomato paste

~palm full of oregano

~half a palm full of garlic powder

Mix ingredients together and spread on pizza dough.

Toppings:

~Soy Cheese (Follow Your Heart Vegan Gourmet Cheese Alternative)

~Ham

Baking Bread

Yesterday my son and I were busy baking french bread. I had been looking for an easy recipe that was easy enough for me. I came upon the perfect recipe when reading A Few Shortcuts site. I actually messed up on it the first time because I didn't print the recipe, so I was rushing back and forth from the kitchen to my computer. After making it the second time it came out much better! The only other problem I had was this little man pictured, my son. Every time I bake something he's got to be right there with me and I love it but sometimes he needs to take a break from being the taste tester. And as you can see he loved tasting the bread raw and cooked! So if you're interested in how easy and AWESOMELY good this bread is click here to find out how to make it.

Picture courtesy of A Few ShortCuts

Yeast Rolls

Yum! Our house smells of homemade bread right now. I just got done making some yeast rolls for our dinner tonight. I couldn't help but try to see if they taste as good as they smell and surprisingly they tasted awesome. I am not much of a bread lover but this recipe I think is the best.
Here's how to make the yeast rolls:
Ingredients:
2T shortening
3T sugar
1c hot water
1 package active dry yeast
1 egg beaten
1t salt
2 1/4 c flour

Directions:
1. Grease 8 muffin cups.
2. In a large bowl mix shortening, hot water, and sugar. Then add the yeast. Let it dissolve in the mixture.
3. Next mix in the egg, salt, and flour.
4. Allow dough to rise double in size
5. Preheat oven to 425 degrees
6. Divide the dough into the greased muffin cups. Then allow the dough to double in size again.
7. Bake for 10 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Enjoy

Dinner 3/11

Tonight I made my son Clam Sauce over Fettuccine. I believe he loved every minute of eating it! I was surprised because lately he's been really picky at what he's eating. I had a taste of the sauce and in my opinion it was AWESOME!

So, here is the recipe for the Clam Sauce:

2 (6.5 ounce) cans minced clams, with juice

1/4 cup butter

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/2 teaspoon minced garlic

1 tablespoon dried parsley

ground black pepper to taste

1/4 tablespoon dried basil
Put all ingredients in a sauce pan and heat until it's bubbling.

Palomilla Patty Melts

Go here to get the recipe.

A few nights ago I was watching Rachael Ray and she had a great recipe for a burger. Being that I had every ingredient, I decided that would be a great choice for dinner. The only difference was that I had pepper jack swiss cheese and it still was an AWESOME juicy burger!

Printable Cook Book from Hidden Valley

Hidden Valley has a free printable cook book. Go here to get yours.

I love collecting cookbooks especially when they're FREE!

Last Nights Dinner

Once in awhile when I make dinner I throw in some veggies because my son or his father doesn't eat much fruit/vegetables. Last night I put this together for my son and his father to eat some veggies without knowing it. I heated up some polish sausage and chopped up onions together. Next I cooked some wheat noodles and added pasta sauce and a sweet potato-carrot puree to it. Along with 3 cloves roasted garlic (I LOVE garlic!). To my surprise Tony and Ethan loved it and didn't even notice the sweet potato-carrot puree.

Recipes

Pillsbury has announced their top 100 finalist for the bake off they're having. Go
here to see if you find any that interest you to make. Also they offer coupons when registering. To sign up and get their coupons go here. By far this week has been the best I have seen for Pillsbury coupons.

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies

By far this is the best recipe I have found for this type of cookie. They are soft and oh soooo yummy.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup margarine/butter, softened
1 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup white sugar
1 cup peanut butter (I used Petter Pan)
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cup quick-cooking oats

1 1/2 chocolate chips (optional)

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. In a large bowl, cream together shortening, margarine, brown sugar, white sugar, and peanut butter until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time until well blended. Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt; stir into the creamed mixture. Mix in the oats until just combined. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.
3. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven, or until just light brown. Don't over-bake. Cool and store in an airtight container.